The various carriers of the invention disclosed herein are particularly adapted for supporting the heavier bikes such as the mountain bikes. Various accessory bike racks have been developed. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,394,948; 4,513,897; 4,452,385; and 4,830,250 are examples of prior art patents on bike racks. All of
these patents have at least two support frames with each support frame made up of two legs. The '385 patent has front and rear legs in a fixed relationship whereas the other patents mentioned above have some range of angular adjustment between the legs to accommodate different shaped trunks or rear extremities of the vehicles. The '897 and '948 patents have forward legs which are fixed to side plates. Rear legs which engage the rearmost portion of the vehicle have a range of angular adjustment provided by slots in the plates and rivets in the legs which move in the slots. U.S. Pat. No. 4,830,250 discloses the use of two U-shaped support frames and two support arms all of which are rotatably supported from a common axis and all of which can be adjusted at the same time when the locking nuts are loose. Although the carrier disclosed in the '250 patent provides a compact folded package, it is difficult to manipulate both the legs and the support arms because all parts are loose at the same time. The legs are not locked in a fixed relationship when adjusting the angle of the support arms to horizontal and the legs can easily slip from the adjusted position. Heretofore, the prior art has not provided a support arm cushion or sleeve which cooperates with an elastic tie down which cooperates to provide a partially concealed storage position for the tie and convenient manipulation and locking of the tie down.